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* Shared playlist/queue between all users of a household.

* No need to have a second device present to stream music. That is, I can start up music with the controller on my phone, and go to the store, but the music still plays since all the streaming is handled by the sonos speaker.

* No need to pair your phone/computer to the device every time you come home. Just get on the wifi, and you're set.

Those are the big ones for me, and honestly they're huge.

On the flip side, the biggest pain point is that you're beholden to whatever music services they include in their controller, and you have to use their controller to play music. So while they support Apple Music, I can't use the Music app on my phone to play it. I have to drill through the Sonos app and find what I want. It works pretty well, but it's annoying. Also, I can't stream Audible books, or Overcast podcasts since they aren't supported by the Sonos controller.

Why would you need to play music at home while you're going to a store?

Also, activating Bluetooth is as frictionless as activating WiFi.

> Also, activating Bluetooth is as frictionless as activating WiFi.

Not in my experience. Bluetooth is functional, but it's hard to call it better.

* Connecting 2 people (phones) to one device is hardly supported.

* Those 2 people can't really manage a single playlist without special effort.

* Auto connecting to a bluetooth speaker when I walk in the house doesn't happen. It does with wifi.

* Connecting to the bluetooth speaker typically kicks off any other connection

* The issue of walking too far from the bluetooth speaker with the playing device still exists.

* Ever run the microwave while streaming audio over bluetooth? It doesn't work.

In my experience, bluetooth is better at one thing: streaming whatever audio from whatever app I want.

Because you aren't the only one enjoying the music at your home. The most annoying thing about being at a party where bluetooth audio is being used is when the person paired gets too far away from the speaker.
Configure a tablet in guided / single app mode for music playback. Trivial stuff.
That would be trivial, but the small change in experience diminishes the value. If I want music in my bedroom, I don't want to have to walk to my living room to get the tablet, and I don't want to install a tablet in every room with instructions for how to use with Spotify, Pandora, Amazon Music, Pocket Casts, Apple Music, our networked media SSD, etc. or where I happen to want to pull music from. I don't want to have extra devices everywhere that require their own cords and physical spaces.

Sonos allows my wife and I to simply play whatever music we want, wherever we want, with no hassle. And it sounds great.

If you've got a spare tablet laying around, I'll take it.
That's a fine solution if you have an extra one laying around. But I don't and I'm hesitant to buy a tablet just to drive a speaker.
Is it even more expensive to drive a regular speaker with a dedicated tablet than a Sonos speaker?
Yeah cost is definitely not going to be a reasonable factor wrt Sonos equipment comparison. I think the tablet being misplaced, broken or otherwise abused is more troublesome.
>Also, activating Bluetooth is as frictionless as activating WiFi.

Oh my, no. Activating bluetooth is so frustrating that Apple built a special chip to make it easier. That Sonos work over Wifi and not Bluetooth is the primary selling point.

You're hosting a party and you run out of something so you run to the store.
Just an FYI you can play on Sonos directly from Spotify now - that was a huge game changer for me.
Chromebox audio?
Sonos offers synchronization between speakers, better range, music still plays when your phone is off, easier for multiple devices to control the music, plays more music sources (e.g. from a NAS).

(Disclaimer: I used to work for Sonos.)

Until they decide to turn any of these features off, right?
Sonos has at times deprecated features, yes (for example, you can no longer play music from a Rhapsody UPnP server running on your Windows computer - they replaced it with direct playback from Rhapsody's servers). Other times music services have gone under entirely and Sonos has removed them.
That is the catch.
If you are only interested in having one speaker, I would probably agree that bluetooth is the better choice. Much more flexibility. Sonos is better when you've got a whole house full of speakers. Grouping rooms together, playing different stuff in different rooms, and the ability for anyone on your network to interact with all of it is where Sonos shines.
You can setup a network of them so they can play the same thing throughout the house. Phones can usually only stream to one bluetooth speaker.
I have both. I have no home music or home theatre use case for which Bluetooth is simpler or otherwise better in any other fashion.

In particular, non-technical users appear to be vastly more comfortable with the Sonos system.